Iowa’s unemployment rate in April was three-point-three percent — the same as March. Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend says there was a modest increase in hiring last month.
Iowa manufacturers added 400 workers to their payrolls in April. Over the past 12 months the manufacturing sector has shed 38-hundred jobs.
Last August, for example, John Deere laid off nearly 240 workers from three factories. Since January, John Deere has recalled 140 employees to work at its facilities in Dubuque and Davenport. Iowa’s labor force participation rate was 67.5% last month, down slightly from March and below the all-time high of over 70% set in 2019. Townsend says there are a combination of factors influencing that, including Baby Boomers who are retiring for good.
Townsend says some workers are dropping out of the workforce to start a family or take care of aging parents.
The latest data on Iowa’s job market indicates hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues have been adding workers since January, with another 16-hundred added to payrolls in April. And over the past two months, private schools in Iowa have hired 1,200 people. In the past year, health care and social services is the sector of Iowa’s economy that’s shown the most gains — adding 4,700 more workers since September. Townsend says there are good paying jobs in health care and other industries for students graduating this month from Iowa colleges and universities.
Over 200,000 Iowans were working in Iowa health care facilities last month and nearly 270,000 others were employed by state or local governments. Many of those government employees were working in public hospitals or clinics, including those managed by the University of Iowa.
